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Potential Eagles target Sony Michel is in the news the night before the 2018 NFL Draft.
Michael Lombardi of The Ringer reports teams are concerned about a bone-on-bone condition in Michel’s knee (via Rotoworld).
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t Michael Lombardi the doofus who once called Super Bowl winning head coach Doug Pederson the least qualified coach in the NFL? Yes. Yes, he is.
But there’s a difference between stating a (very dumb) opinion and sharing actual information you’ve heard. Lombardi is former NFL GM, of course, so it’s plausible he’s legitimately heard teams are concerned about Michel’s knee.
It’s not like this is coming out of nowhere. Mike Mayock, who isn’t a total moron, has also acknowledged there are concerns about Michel’s knee that could drop him into the second round. Despite this, Mayock has Michel as his No. 32 overall prospect. He also projected Michel to the Steelers at No. 28 in his only 2018 NFL Mock Draft.
Considering the timing of this news — the night before the NFL Draft — you have to question motives in play here. It’s quite possible some team that actually likes Michel is trying to leak out bad stuff about him so that he falls to their pick. That’s pretty messed up to screw with a young man’s life like that, but I wouldn’t put it past NFL people.
For Michel’s sake, hopefully his knee isn’t as bad as some teams might fear. Similar concerns about Eagles running back Jay Ajayi, which have proven to be true to some extent, dropped him to the fifth-round. Maybe the Eagles have been taking the “trying to find a Jay Train replacement” thing a little too literally.
Jokes aside, Michel is definitely a name to watch when it comes to Philadelphia’s pick at No. 32, or if the Birds trade down. A ton of mock drafts suddenly have the Eagles taking the Georgia running back (ESPN, Rotoworld, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah, Philadelphia Daily News, etc.). The Sporting News also reported Michel’s one of the players the Birds are targeting.
We’ll see!